World of Darkness: San Francisco

From Gothpoodle

Revision as of 03:52, 18 January 2006

A World of Darkness campaign set in modern San Francisco and the surrounding bay area.

History

Native Period (pre-1776)

The Yelamu indian tribe occupied the area in small villages along the peninsula. Much of the area was marsh, dune scrub, and grasslands, the latter supporting deer and elk. The charactistic fog caused initial European explorers to miss the bay entirely.

Werewolves

A single pack known as the Mist Walkers patrolled the peninsula.

Mages

No formal cabals existed, but individual shamans among the Yeluma practiced magic.

Spanish Period (1776-1822)

The Presidio de San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Assisi were established during a colonization drive to prevent British and Russian occupation of the west coast. The goal of the settlement was to enslave and control the native population, guard the frontier, and act as a focus for further colonization. Five other missions, four pueblos, and many ranchos were founded in the area after this initial settlement. The local environment was changed by the introduction of cattle and sheep as well as the cutting down of the few trees for use in building.

In 1792 British explorer George Vancouver set up a small settlement near the village of Yerba Buena (later downtown San Francisco) which became a small base for English, Russian, and other European fur traders, explorers, and settlers.

Werewolves

The Mist Walkers fought the Spanish incursion into their territory, driving off any Hispanic Uratha who came or underwent First Change. They were taken in by a small Pure pack on the north side of the bay who called themselves the Lords of the Mist.

Mages

Several of the Yeluma shaman formed a cabal to fight the oppression of their people, but Banishers backed by the Catholic Church protected the Mission and then wiped them out.

Mexican Period (1822-1847)

The Mexican Revolution didn't have great effect on the settlement other than to lead to the abandonment of the Presidio by Mexican forces, who moved north to Sonoma. With the population of local native tribes dwindling due to disease and poverty, other tribes from the area were brought into the missions, freeing up their land for ranching and destroying their distinct cultures. American forces moved in during their war with Mexico and were formally ceded the territory two years later by treaty.

Werewolves

As their people died out, the Mist Walkers began to recruit from the other tribes. Also, as interbreeding became more frequent, the lines between the natives and Hispanics blurred, leading to a gradual cessation of hostilities but only after several outbreaks of open violence and revolt.

Mages

With no more mages to hunt, the Banishers moved on, leaving the peninsula devoid of magical influence.

Barbary Coast (1847-1906)

U.S. naval forces claimed the area in January of 1847 and renamed the settlement San Francisco. The California gold rush occurred just a year later and San Francisco went from a village to a city in the course of a year. Growing pains included extreme lawlessness, massive fires destroying large parts of the city, a cholera epidemic, an outbreak of bubonic plague, and intense racial tension leading to riots and eventually legislation restricting Chinese immigration. During this period, the waterfront was referred to as the Barbary Coast, a reference to the pirates and slavers of North Africa.

Vampires

Seamus Quinn, an ambitious Ventrue businessman with extensive shipping interests in Boston, New York, and New Orleans, came to San Francisco by ship to exploit the new city and establish himself as Prince. He brought with him the ghoul, Michel Dufresne, who ran his New Orleans business and quickly Embraced an influential member of the rapidly growing Chinese community, Jin Ai. With the explosive growth of the city, he decided to Embrace Michel in 1880 to act as his emissary to other Invictus in California.

Werewolves

All remaining differences were forgotten in the chaos of the Gold Rush and the years that followed. The Mist Walkers pack split twice in this period along tribal lines, with the Uratha desparate to keep up with the new spirits and loci appearing every day. Disease spirits ran rampant while spirits of greed, gold, and violence moved back and forth across the Gauntlet unimpeded. The raging fires gave birth to a powerful spirit which allied with a newly formed Pure pack of Russian descent. For years, the Forsaken and Pure warred amidst the wreckage of a ravaged Shadow San Francisco.

Mages

With the flood of immigrants came mages and three cabals formed during this time. The first was the Chosen of Ti-Tsang, Chinese alchemists who set up shop in Chinatown, tending to the needs of their countrymen and drawn by the proximity of death and material greed. The second was founded by Mary Pleasant, a voodoo practitioner from New Orleans who founded the Children of Olorun to tend to the needs of the small black population. The last was a cabal called the Watchers, who were sent by the Seers of the Throne to monitor occult activity in the new state. With the first two being community-centered and the latter concerned only with observation, magical matters were mostly peaceful save for the occasional belligerant outside mage.

Reconstruction (1906-1950)

Around 80% of the city was destroyed during the Earthquake of 1906 and the fire that burned for several days afterwards. The newly-rebuilt city left behind much of the corruption, violence, and other troubles of its difficult first half-century. The Panama-Pacific Exposition was held a decade later and the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were build in the 30s.

Vampires

The fire after the 1906 Earthquake destroyed Quinn. Jin survived through the efforts of his diligent ghouls while Michel was in Sacramento on business. The struggle for control of the city was brief because Michel's power base was less centralized in the city and he was able to muster his resources faster. He took the place of his sire and Embraced one of his ghouls, Hugh Ramsey. Jin did the same with his grandniece, Jianzhen Ai, who's quick thinking had saved him from the fire.

Two outside Kindred came to the city late in this period. The first was a Mexican missionary named Father Niceto Castanos, a member of the Lancea Sanctum who had passed through the city before during his travels and decided, eventually, to settle and tend to the spiritual needs of the local vampires. Hugh Ramsey converted within a week of his arrival, resulting in considerable enmity between the Lancea and the Invictus. The second was a refugee from the Second World War, Solomon Loeb, one of the mysterious Ordo Dracul.

Werewolves

The war came to a head with the Pure making an alliance with the powerful fire spirit which had been fed by the initial conflagrations which had swept through the city and coordinating with the Lords of the Mist to rouse the Thunder Wyrm. During the aftermath of the resulting earthquake, the three Forsaken packs were decimated but the Lords of the Mist were driven back across the bay and the Russian Pure pack was thought to be exterminated. As the city was rebuilt, the remaining Uratha reformed the old Mist Walkers pack and agreed to put aside racial, cultural, and ideological differences to dedicate themselves to defending the city. As more Uratha arrived or Changed, the pack began to split again until there were five, one for each tribe: Insert Tribe Names Here.

Mages

The three cabals weathered the earthquake and fire and continued to operate much as they had. More mages arrived as the city grew, but generally formed small cabals which didn't last more than a decade or two. The only permanent organization to form in the area was the Rosicrucian cabal in San Jose in 1915, which kept to itself, collecting artifacts, exploring mysteries, and sharing mystical knowledge among its members.

Counterculture (1950-1980)

The Beat Generation, hippies, radical politics, Church of Satan, gays and lesbians.

Vampires

Werewolves

Two new Pure packs formed in the city under the direction of Ivory Claws from Los Angeles, the Insert Pack Name Here and Insert Pack Name Here. The now more organized Forsaken were able to drive them away from the core of the city, but they remained on the periphery, digging in and securing territories until the city expanded to include them. Attempts by the five Forsaken packs to uproot them were sabotaged by the need to police the spirits being spawned by the new radicalism and the backlash against it, including a resurgence of the old spirits of bigotry, fear, and hatred that were suppressed after the earthquake.

Mages

The influx of new agers, mystics, and weirdos during this period included several mages, including several of dubious ethics and practices. The established cabals began to take more of an interest in the activites of the newcomers. The Watchers, in particular, decided that observation wasn't sufficient and reformed as the Sandmen. Quietly, they began to remove or drive off the more destructive of the mages and also made inroads to allow them to suppress the new wave of mysticism. Their activities were noticed by the other two cabal, who decided not to interfere because those they were focusing on were deserving of the attention. Despite the efforts of the Seers, two new cabals formed during this period: the Temple of Ama-no-Uzume and the Pink Elephant Commune. Both shared a more outward focus than the previous inhabitants, with interests in shaping the world and changing its perspectives, and so made contact with the two non-Seer cabal and heralded the formation of an actual magical community.

Decline (1980-1990)

AIDS, homelessness, Manhattanization, 1989 Earthquake

Vampires

Werewolves

The outbreak of AIDS leads to a resurgence in the power of plague spirits as well as an infestation of Rat Hosts which the Pure use to their advantage, feeding power to the Thunder Wyrm resulting in another major earthquake. The event reveals that the Russian Pure pack thought to have been destroyed after the 1906 quake have been underground, continuing to plot the destruction of the city and the Forsaken. Conflict never escalates past small skirmishes with all of the other distractions. Eventually, the disease spirits are mostly contained but the Rat Host infestation is deep and, though a few major nests are destroyed, there are assumed to be more.

Mages

Tensions mount as the Sandmen expand their influence and begin to intrude more into the affairs of the established cabals. Paranoia mounts and defenses are strengthened. A degree of stability occurs when three Benandanti arrive in the city and establish a cabal dedicated to protecting Sleepers from spirits and dark magic which they call the Knights of St. Francis. They quickly establish a relationship with the Seers and end up acting as liaisons, not just between the Seers and Pentacle mages, but also between mages and the other supernatural entites in the city. To the north, a young hispanic vinyard hieress establishes the Court of the Huntress on the ancient Dionysian mysteries and quickly becomes a power in the North Bay.

Dot-Com Boom (1990-2000)

Gentrification, influx of tech and marketing folk

Vampires

Werewolves

Mages

Spiritual Switchboard Collective

Present (post-2000)

Dot-Com Bust, loss of 30,000 people in just a few years, abandonment of bustling areas